Tag Archives: SustainableCollections

New report available on journal article access

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As the Libraries revisits our subscriptions in light of our Sustainable Collections goals, we will be sharing available data on journal article access in regular Journal Article Access Reports. Our first report, covering January to March 2021, or the first three months of our changed Elsevier contract, is now available. The report includes data on our InterLibrary Loan service and the LibKey Discovery tool we have implemented to streamline article access for our users.

Our first quarter report, and all future reports, will be published on the Journal Article Access Reports page of our Sustainable Collections site. We welcome your questions and comments on this report or other aspects of the Libraries’ work in the area of sustainable collections.

Graduate students survey on journal access

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The University Libraries is conducting a survey to learn about Mason researchers’ journal usage and access needs. As journal costs outpace library budgets, the Libraries has been forced to shift some journals from a subscription-based model to an alternative access model, in which articles are available via Open Access or Interlibrary Loan (ILL).  

The survey for graduate students is available here and will remain open from Monday, May 3 through Monday, May 17, at 11:59 p.m. The survey is anonymous. Survey responses will be used within the Libraries only, to inform journal subscription and renewal decisions. A separate survey has been circulated to faculty.

If you have any questions about this survey, email Dr. Helen McManus, Head, Collections Strategy, at hmcmanus@gmu.edu. 

To learn more about the Libraries’ recent efforts to further sustainable collection practices, visit our Sustainable Collections site. 

Libraries Survey on Journal Article Access

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The University Libraries is conducting a survey to learn about Mason researchers’ journal usage and access needs. As journal costs outpace library budgets, the Libraries has been forced to shift some journals from a subscription-based model to an alternative access model, in which articles are available via Open Access or Interlibrary Loan (ILL).  

The survey is available here and will remain open until Thursday, April 29, at 11:59 p.m. The survey is anonymous, unless you specifically request a follow-up email from the Libraries. Survey responses will be used within the Libraries only, to inform journal subscription and renewal decisions. 

If you have any questions about this survey, email Dr. Helen McManus, Head, Collections Strategy, at hmcmanus@gmu.edu. 

To learn more about the Libraries’ recent efforts to further sustainable collection practices, visit our Sustainable Collections site. 

New UC-Elsevier Deal for Open Access

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As the Libraries continues to track news related to “big deals,” open access, and the broader scholarly communications landscape, we wanted to share some perspectives on a recent, transformative deal reached between the University of California system and the publisher Elsevier. 

As mentioned in UC’s press release, “The agreement is the largest of its kind in North America to date, bringing together UC, which generates nearly 10 percent of all U.S. research output, and Elsevier, which disseminates about 17 percent of journal articles produced by UC faculty. The deal will double the number of articles made available through UC’s transformative open access agreements.” 

The four-year deal, which goes into effect today, April 1, 2021, has been met with intense discussion and varying reactions. See, for example, the following: 

For more information about Sustainable Scholarship at the Mason Libraries, visit our Sustainable Scholarship site.

Questions or comments regarding the Libraries’ recent negotiations with Elsevier or other “big deal” subscriptions? We welcome them here. 

Changes to VIVA Wiley agreement

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Mason researchers have access to a large number of journals published by Wiley, thanks to an on-going contract between Wiley and the Virtual Library of Virginia (VIVA).  However, given current budget cuts across the state, recently VIVA has had to renegotiate this contract. To maintain this important journal access and yet still reach a viable price point, one component of the earlier contract has been dropped: financial support for authors publishing in fully-open journals. 

Fortunately, at Mason we are still able to offer our Open Access Publishing Fund as a way to support Open Access (OA) publishing by university researchers and offset potential publishing costs. To review the eligibility criteria and to apply for funding, please visit our OA Publishing Fund site.

To learn more about the cost of academic journal subscriptions, please visit our Sustainable Collections site.